Two incidents at Manchester Airport this week

The past four days have been an eventful one at Manchester Airport after two incidents caused a terminal to be shut down and passengers standing idle on a runway. The first on Saturday involved an incident with a man trying to board a plane with a white powder substance and the second was when passengers on a plane had to vacate to the runway after making an emergency landing on their way to Aberdeen.

The check-in desks and the departure area of Terminal 3 were closed for a time on Saturday when a routine search of one man’s hand luggage turned up a mysterious white substance. Police were then called and the man is question had is hold bad searched in which they found more containers of a white substance. A chemical alert was issued and for the safety of everyone the terminal was evacuated. The substance was tested and deemed not to be explosive, but the UK Border Agency was investigating whether it is allowed to fly with the unknown substance. No one arrested at the time and he was allowed to go on with his flight.

Yesterday morning a Flybe flight from Birmingham to Aberdeen had to divert to Manchester Airport after cabin crew reported smelling something similar to smoke. After landing fire services inspected the plane, but could find no cause of the smell. The passengers and crew evacuated the plane and waited until a bus was cleared to pick them and take them to the terminal, so arrangements could be made to get them to Aberdeen.